April 6, 2008

Were Melvil Dewey and Other Famous Librarians All ‘Elitist Wimps’?

Scott Douglas says in his new Quiet, Please: Dispatches From a Public Librarian that the creator of the Dewey Decimal system and several other famous librarians had one thing in common: “they were all elitist wimps.” One-Minute Book Reviews will review the book tomorrow.

(c) 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

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I have been known to say out loud that I miss the card catalog system at the library. Something about the computer search instead divorces one, not only from the feel of those little cards but also from the search itself.

I suspect I would therefore be labeled a wimp as well. I look forward to tomorrow’s review of a book but I might never have found or noticed otherwise, yet intrigues me greatly. (No, I’m not a librarian, but pretend I am when arranging our bookshelves here at home. HM likes them arranged by color – it’s a design thing. I like them arranged by…yes, you guessed it, category. However, his way is so much more fun when you’re looking for somehting!)

I’d bet a lot of people miss those cards (and those lovely long wooden — oak? — boxes that held them). But I love the ease of computer searching and especially that, at so many libraries now, you can search the catalog remotely.